481 



cation of De Candolle." Thus we see, that the minute and difficult 

 character has not even the advantage of exactness or natural-wess to 

 compensate for the difficulties which it puts in the track of the stu- 

 dent, — and all botanists are students to the end of their lives : no one 

 learns all plants. Put down Mr. Babington on the shores of the Falk- 

 land Islands, and Dr. Hooker on the coasts of Britain, each would be 

 sadly at fault, but change their positions, and they find themselves 

 among their familiar acquaintances in plants. 



In the paper on Cuscuta, more interesting to the observers of Bri- 

 tish plants, Mr. Babington describes three species, all of which might 

 likely have been " lumped " under the one name of C. Epithy- 

 mum by less close observers of Nature, and two of them, indeed, 

 certainly have been so. First, we have the common C. Epithymum 

 of our heaths, reduced in its comprehensiveness. Secondly, C. Tri- 

 folii {Bab.), a species carved out of the former, and on fair enough 

 characters, provided they prove constant when examined by persons 

 less inclined to subdivide. Thirdly, C. appro ximata {Bab.), said to 

 have been imported from the East Indies with seeds of Melilotus offi- 

 cinalis ; and this has still clearer characters for distinction. The 

 paper is illustrated by figures, which greatly assist in explaining the 

 differences of these three species. Their assigned characters run 

 thus : — 



1. — C. Epithymum (Murr.). Clusters of flowers bracteated, sessile, 

 calyx campanulate, shorter than the tube of the corolla ; its 

 segments ovate, corona appressed ; its lobes (scales) subequal 

 to the cylindrical tube of the corolla, rounded at the apex, fim- 

 briated, convergent approximate at the base ; stigmas filiform. 

 2. — C. Trifolii (Bab.). Clusters of flowers bracteated sessile ; ca- 

 lyx infundibuliform, subequal to the tube of the corolla, its 

 segments lanceolate ; interstices of the corona saccate, its lobes 

 half the size of the tube of the infundibuliform coroZ/a, rounded 

 at the apex, fimbriated, convergent, distant at the base ; stig- 

 mas filiform. 

 3. — C. approximata (Bab.). Clusters of flowers bracteated sessile, 

 calyx campanulate fleshy, somewhat shorter than the tube of 

 the corolla, its segments broad, truncate and apiculate or rhom- 

 boidal ; corona appressed, its lobes broad appressed, slightly 

 shorter than the cylindrical tube of the corolla, bifid, with di- 

 vergent segments, fimbriate at the apex, approximate at the 

 base ; stigmas filiform. 

 The object of Mr. Nourse's paper, is that of pointing out those 



